Ralph Nader: A Profile

Ralph Nader's making it five straight--presidential runs that is, since his 1992 write-in campaign. Here's his raw vote and % in each of his runs:

1992: 6,300 votes for "none-of-the-above" in the NH primary
1996: 685,297 votes, 0.7%
2000: 2,883,105 votes, 2.7%
2004: 465,650 votes, 0.38%

The 2000 election of course was heavily influenced by Nader, in the sense that he won 97,488 votes in Florida, a state Bush won by 534 votes. As it seems likely that a Nader-less ballot would have redounded in Al Gore's favor, the spoiler effect Nader had on the election made 2000 in reality a nadir for Nader. His vote dropped sharply in '04, as many of his supporters and the Green party itself disavowed him.

Here's his personal data from ProjectVoteSmart:

Gender: Male
Family: Single.
Birth Date: 02/27/1934
Birthplace: Winsted, CT
Home City: Winsted, CT
Religion: Christian

Education:
LLB, Harvard Law School, 1958
AB, Magna Cum Laude, Princeton University, 1955
Attended, Gilbert School, 1951.

Nader announced his candidacy on Meet the Press this past Sunday (see last post). He's since chosen collage artist Matt Gonzalez as his running mate this time around.

According to the Politico:

Democrats and bloggers are already reacting with fury, fearing a rerun of 2000, when Nader drained crucial votes from Al Gore.

"'Loathe' isn't a strong enough word," said a senior adviser to the Clinton campaign.

The immediate question for Democrats is whether they'll be as ruthless as they were in 2004 in throwing procedural obstacles in the way of Nader's access to the ballot in key states.